Delegate: Prof. Wing Yun Kwok; Prof. Chan Ngan Yin, Rachel; Prof. Chan Wing Yan, Joey; Dr. Yu Ju Cheng, Danny; Miss. Sun Wai Han, Julia; Mr. Ngan Cho Lam
Affiliation: Li Chiu Kong Family Sleep Assessment Unit, Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Short Bio: Li Chiu Kong Family Sleep Assessment Unit (SAU) in the Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong is the first of its kind in Hong Kong. SAU provides professional training to clinicians and technicians in sleep medicine and technology for both local, national and overseas personnel. In order to promote sleep health in the general population, apart from providing patients with clinical needs, SAU has established social media platform (Facebook and Instagram) in 2022. We regularly share updated research evidence via the platform and conduct sleep health activities to the public.
Activity: To celebrate the World Sleep Day 2023, Li Chiu Kong Family Sleep Assessment Unit, Department of Psychiatry in The Chinese University of Hong Kong held a series of activities in promoting sleep health awareness of our citizens and promote sleep culture in Hong Kong.
On the World Sleep Day 2023, Prof. YK Wing, Dr. Rachel Chan and Dr. Joey Chan held a press conference to share our most updated research findings with public (Picture 1). The sharing covered 3 major aspects: 1) habitual short night-time sleepers have twice the risk of long COVID; 2) persistent eveningness and insomnia are associated with greater risk of depression; 3) short sleep duration can potentially cause several cardiovascular diseases. The press conference drew substantial public focus and were reported by 15 News media, such as South China Morning Post, The Standard, Hong Kong Economic Times, and Radio Television Hong Kong etc. In addition, Drs. Rachel Chan and Joey Chan were invited to share the sleep health message in the live radio program in Hong Kong.
In addition, we also organized a series of workshops including cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), exercise, mindfulness-based relaxation training to enhance the knowledge transfer of practical experiences in coping with sleep problems to the public.
As for experiential sessions of the workshops, a total of 145 participants signed up, and 60 participants successfully joined our activities in person.
We started with two exercise workshops, which was held on March 10 and led by Dr. Danny Yu (Picture 2). A total of 22 participants joined the workshop. The exercise workshops last for 60 minutes, consisting of 10-minute knowledge sharing on the topic of exercise & sleep, 40-minute muscle-strengthening exercise, and 10-minute Q&A session.
Our second activity was a mindfulness-based relaxation training, which was held on March 17, and led by Miss. Sun Wai Han, Julia, Clinical Psychologist (Picture 3). The mindfulness-based relaxation training last for 60 minutes and a total of 13 participants joined the workshop. Participants experienced a series of breathing, imaginary relaxation training. A knowledge sharing on the topic of stress & sleep was also given during this workshop.
We also held two group-based CBT-I workshops (n=25) for our citizens (Picture 3). Each workshop included 4 weekly 60-minute sessions. The first session of the workshops started on March 11. The workshops were led by Mr. Ngan Cho Lam, Clinical Psychologist. The CBT-I workshops provided state-of-the-art CBT-I information covering stimulus control, sleep restriction, cognitive therapy, relaxation training and sleep hygiene education.
We also actively engaged our citizens through our Facebook, Instagram, University webpage and local newspapers to celebrate and promote World Sleep Day. Our Facebook posts that related to world sleep day reach more than 10,000 users and received over 310 likes.
Location: Department of Psychiatry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong
Date of Activity: 2023 March 10 to 2023 April 01
Submitted by: Dr. Danny Yu
